Help:Footnotes
See also Wikipedia:Footnotes for further details on this method, specific to Wikipedia This page explains how to create numbered footnotes and references using ,, and syntax, which is the current best-practice method in most circumstances. For the policy about the need and choice of sources to cite see Psychology wiki:Verifiability, and Psychology wiki:Citing sources. Inserting references or footnotes Single citation of a reference or footnote At the point of citation in the article, enter the footnote or reference like this: :Excel For Dummies, First Edition, Hungry Minds, Inc., 1980. You can include formatting and links in the footnote or reference in the usual way. Creating the list of References or Footnotes At the point where you want the text of the footnotes or references to appear (usually at the end of the article in a Notes or References section), insert the tag: : The template is an alternative, mostly used if there are many footnotes. Multiple citations of the same reference or footnote To cite the same reference or footnote several times, identify it using the name parameter of the tag. At one of the citation points (it makes sense to choose the first), enter the reference like this: :Perry's Handbook, Sixth Edition, McGraw-Hill Co., 1984. Then at all the other citation points, just enter: : Using templates to insert reference text A number of , such as a generic , or more specific , , etc., are available to format the text between and tags in a more structured way. These are described at Wikipedia:Citation templates. Their use is optional: they do aid with consistent formatting, but on the other hand they can make editing more cumbersome. References or footnotes missing When you want to note that a reference is needed, use the template within the text, in the same place where the should be. If many footnotes and/or references are needed consider tagging the article with a specific template, instead of tagging every reference needed. What it looks like The tags in the main text are converted to auto-numbered superscripts, and is expanded to "citation needed", like this: Clicking on a numbered superscript takes you straight to the text of the corresponding footnote or reference. The tag is expanded to show the text of the footnotes or references against their corresponding numbers, like this: For single citations, clicking on the caret (^''') takes you to the point of citation in the main text. For multiple citations, the links back to the main text are distinguished by letter superscripts (a', 'b', 'c''' etc.). Clicking on a letter superscript takes you to the corresponding citation in the main text. Technical note A MediaWiki site (such as Wikipedia) must have the extension Cite/Cite.php implemented to have the and tags rendered. Extensions like Cite/Cite.php are installed after installing MediaWiki. See also * Psychology wiki:Referencing for beginners - a step by step guide * Psychology wiki:Citing sources * Psychology wiki:Embedded citations * m:help:footnotes - General MediaWiki footnotes documentation * Psychology wiki - An older method, obsolete except for Harvard references * mw:Extension:Cite/Cite.php - technical details about cite.php technology Footnotes Category:Editor handbook